


Juggie and Betts

by Phoebeee123



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Betty Cooper - Freeform, Bughead fluff, Comfort/Angst, Cute, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluffy Ending, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Home, Homeless Jughead, Jughead Jones is Not Asexual, Jughead x betty, Light Angst, Love, M/M, Romance, Romantic Angst, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Friendship, Teen Angst, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, betty x jughead, bughead - Freeform, jetty - Freeform, jughead jones - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-04 04:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10268792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoebeee123/pseuds/Phoebeee123
Summary: He was homelessHer mother didn't want her to be around himBut they were still Juggie and Betts





	1. The Sarcastic and The Sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any mistakes   
> xoxo

The town of Riverdale was changing from the town that Jughead grew up in and loved to a dark and sadistic place where nobody trusted anybody, everyone's character was in question because of one thing; the murder of Jason Blossom. Over the course of one summer the dynamic of the whole town had changed, no one cared about anything other than the death of the young ginger football star who's life had been brutally taken away far too early. Jughead was glad that everyone's mind was on something else, otherwise someone might've noticed all the time Jughead spent at Pop's or how you could always find him roaming the streets late at night looking like didn't have anywhere to go. That's because he didn't. The closing of the drive-in was the closing of his home, his shelter, his place to call his own. Part of him knew he should tell someone but he also knew that his problems were nothing compared to everyone else's. For now Jughead would find shelter under bridges and if he were lucky he could get into a public toilet after they were cleaned and before they were locked for the night but he was often not quick enough for that. Sleeping under the bridge wasn't terrible, but winter was bound to hit sometime soon and then Jughead would be left in the cold, quite literally. Jughead was far too young to be stressing over a place to live but his mumma left and his dad turned into a criminal and that wasn't something Jughead needed to be around. Jughead lied down on the small patch of grass under the bridge and tried to close his eyes, he'd worry about all that in the morning. 

The day started like everyday did for Jughead, a shower in the locker room. Jughead was outside the boys locker room five minutes before the doors opened in order not to be caught by one of the jocks who would no doubt comment on the fact that Jughead was not a sporty person and then make some degrading comment about his physique. Mr Bannon, the groundsman, gave Jughead the same look he had been giving him every day since the drive in shut down, a mixture of confusion and pity. Mr Bannon knew something was up but Mr Bannon wouldn't tell because Mr Bannon didn't care. Jughead showered quickly in fear of having to share the locker room with anyone else. Jughead had used his initiative and got himself a locker so he didn't have to lug all of his belongings around on his back, only the things he desperately needed. Jughead pulled his clothes on and tried to somewhat dry his hair with the towels the school provided. When he left the locker room the halls were still empty, the students of Riverdale High would arrive anytime now, Betty Cooper included. If Jughead was going to tell anyone about his living situation he would tell Betty Cooper. He and Betty had been friends since kindergarten and the only fights they had ever had were over Archie Andrews when they were ten, Betty had wanted all of Archie's attention and Jughead was stopping that from happening. They didn't have that problem anymore, both of them had rocky relationships with Archie as he had burned them both too many times. Jughead unlocked the door to the blue and gold's office and took his usual seat and started up his laptop. Writing the novel on Jason Blossom's murder was the only thing keeping him sane, and the time that he spent with Betty. Jughead read over the pages he wrote late the night before at Pop's and got rid of it around half of it deciding that it was all tired gibberish, he sighed frustrated and adjusted the beanie on top of his.  
“What's got you down Juggie?” The blonde threw herself on the couch next to him and started rubbing at her temples. Jughead quirked his eyebrow at her and smirked at her.  
“Oh you know, just my life. What about you Betts?” Jughead his laptop, knowing that there was no way he'd get any work down with Betty in the room, but he didn't mind too much. He watched her huff angrily cross her arms over her chest like a small child. Jughead thought the world of Betty, there was no one he'd rather spend his time with and it scared him. It scared him because since his mum and sister left Jughead only cared about Jughead he didn't have the time to be caring about someone else. The day that Betty called him into the blue and gold offices that changed. He would look for in crowded rooms, he would do anything she asked him and he resented Archie for breaking heart, again. Betty was the picture of innocence, with her neatly pulled back hair and her pastel coloured cardigans. Jughead knew her better than that. Jughead knew exactly what Betty was capable of, she may of looked innocent but if Betty was fired up there was no stopping her.  
“My mother is possibly the most frustrating human to walk the planet. She thinks she can control who I choose to spend my time with, I accepted it with Archie and Ronnie to a certain degree but this morning she pushed it way too far,” Betty muttered with a slight shake of her head. Jughead quirked his eyebrow again and bit back a small smile.  
“Who is the infamous Alice Cooper trying to keep you away from this time?” Betty looked at Jughead with the saddest smile and her big doe like eyes turned glassy.  
“You,” Jughead's stomach dropped. What had he possibly done to earn Alice 'crazy' Cooper's disapproval? He was polite, he hadn't and didn't plan on breaking her daughter's heart. He never kept her away from her homework and never made her do anything she didn't want to do. Jughead was the perfect friend, Alice Cooper must have a screw loose. That's what Jughead was telling himself. Jughead pulled Betty close to him and rested his chin on top of her head. There was no way he was going to let Alice Cooper keep him away from Betty, Betty was the only thing aside from his writing keeping him going. He wasn't going to give her up that easily.  
“What was her reasoning? Other than being certifiable,” Jughead's lame attempt at lightening the mood just made the blonde's shoulders shake with tears even more. Jughead was trying not to think about it too much. He was trying not to think about the fact that Alice Cooper always got what she wanted. He was trying not to think about the fact that Betty wanted to please everybody, especially her mother. He was trying to think about what his life would become without Betty. Despite his best efforts, while he was holding his sobbing best friend he thought about it all. Jughead had only seen Betty cry a handful of times, when she was five and Reggie hit the icecream she just bought out of her hand, when she was ten and Polly told her she was embarrassing and when she seventeen and Archie told her that he didn't feel the same way. Jughead had seen Betty cry, but not the way she was that morning. Jughead looked at the clock that hung on the wall above Betty's desk, five minutes until their first class started. “Bets, there's five minutes until our first class starts, I don't care but I figure you do,” Betty sat up and sniffed and wiped the sleeves of her cardigan over eyes.  
“It's because you wear you too much black,” Betty mumbled so quietly that Jughead barely heard her speak. Alice Cooper was the definition of insane. The boy had never been a fan of colours and Alice Cooper had known him since he was in diapers, she probably even changed his diapers before, but her problem with his dislike of colour took seventeen years to come to the surface? Jughead didn't think so. Alice was lying to her daughter. “I went to wear my black cardigan today, mum saw and immediately hounded me. She said that you were changing me and she liked me the way I was. I just liked the cardigan,” Jughead knew the cardigan she was talking about, he liked it too but Jughead would like a rubbish bag if Betty wore it.  
“Why yes I'm changing you into an emo, welcome to the dark side Betty Cooper. Literally,” sarcasm was Jughead's coping mechanism. If it seemed like he didn't care maybe he wouldn't. Betty shook her head disappointingly, she was one of two people who saw right through his broody act. She knew he cared, and it scared him. Betty was without a doubt the girl of his dreams, and she had the power to figure that out if she just thought about his actions more. She was the only person he would hug, the only who's feelings he cared about, she was the only person to see him cry. Bit by bit Betty was breaking down the walls he had built not only to protect himself but to protect people like Betty. The sweet ones, the ones that saw the good in everybody no matter what, he was toxic for those types of people. For Betty. His 'I don't care' attitude clashed far too much with their 'I care about everything' one. Maybe Betty would be different, maybe because she could see him for who he really was it would be different. At the end of the day he was the sarcastic and she was the sweet, the two didnt't mix. Maybe Alice Cooper wasn't crazy after all, maybe she had it right for once. Jughead was going to tell the blonde this but then he looked down at her face still wet with tears and the small sad smile that graced her face and decided that he wouldn't. He made a mental note to add selfish to his character description.


	2. A Job and A Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hasn't been edited sorry for any mistakes

Jughead had $15 left to his name. He had enough money for one last burger and milkshake and he's nothing. Jughead had two options, ask his dad or get a job. The sad thing about living in a town like Riverdale was there is never a lot of jobs going. Jughead was lucky to get the job at the drive-in when he did. Jughead entered the bar that was only ever occupied by the South side Serpents, he didn't need his dignity anyway. Like always Jughead could hear his father before he saw him, his loud jeering echoed through the empty halls of the bar. He prepared himself for it, for the comments about never being around unless he needed something, the clap on the back he would receive from half the guys after they realised who he was, his father drunk and being called Forsyth. His father was perched at the bar with a trashy looking blonde hanging off of his arm, Jughead hadn't prepared himself for that. A naive part of Jughead thought that if his dad got himself together then his mum and baby sister could come back and everything would be the way it was before it all went sour, seeing another woman with his dad pulled him back down to reality. He didn't like it. Jughead ignored the looks from the gang members and took a seat next to his father.   
“I have $15, I need money,” Jughead didn't have the time for small talk, he just needed to get the money and get out of there. His father huffed and handed over two $100 notes, enough for two weeks if Jughead budgeted properly. “Thanks,” Jughead put one foot on the ground and turned to leave but his father's hand clasped around his arm in a firm grip.   
“Come and see me more often Forsyth, I am your only family member around here,” His father spoke with hurt riddled in his voice and sadness in his eyes. Jughead should feel bad, but he didn't. The way he saw it his father deserved everything that had happened, but everything that had happened to FP affected Jughead too and Jughead didn't deserve it. Jughead looked at the blonde who still had her arm linked with his father's and then looked into his father's pleading eyes.   
“I wouldn't hold your breath dad. Have a nice day,” Jughead pulled his arm out of his father's grip and gave the blonde one last withering glare as he walked out of the bar. The two notes felt heavy in Jughead's pocket as he walked away from the building where his father would ordering another scotch and cursing his name. Jughead had to do what he had to live, no matter who he hurt. Jughead still kept in contact with his mum and sister, he had pleaded for them to come back to Riverdale but his mother couldn't do it. Not with the way FP was. Jughead wished she'd come back for him, so he had someone he could confide in. Someone to live with, a sister and mother to protect and love. He could keep his father away from them, he already had everything he would say to him planned out in his head. But his mother was too terrified and Jellybean saw their dad as scum. No one ever thought of Jughead. 

It was five o'clock, Jughead had thirty minutes of peaceful writing time left before the rush started. Jughead hated the rush. Pop's would fill with families with small children, big packs of teenagers that he knew and would often make loud comments about him that made his blood boil, men like Fred Andrews on their way home from work picking up tea for the people at home, he hated them all. But he loved watching the workers. During rush they became like cogs in a machine, moving around each other and working together to achieve the same goal, to serve the customers. Pop was the big cog behind it all, despite only being the owner of a small diner Jughead still looked up to him. Pop was smart, kind and most importantly, not an alcoholic. Pop was everything he wished his dad could be. When the rush started Jughead would sit at the counter with his chocolate milkshake and plate of cheese fries and chat to the old man while he flipped the burgers Jughead loved so much. It was Friday night, Pop's busiest night. The rush had started and Jughead was perched at the counter stabbing at his cheese fries, not really having an appetite after his run in with his father morning. Pop looked over and raised his eyebrows.   
“Something wrong with the fries boy?” Jughead head's cheeks turned a bright shade of red. Jughead shoved the fry in his mouth and cringed, they had gone cold. Jughead sighed and shook his head.   
“I went to get money off of dad this morning, he had some blonde clinging off him, I guess it turned me off my food,” Pop put the patties on the buns, wiped his hands on his apron and gave the spatula to the boy next to him. “I've just always thought that if dad got better mum could come back and seeing another female that wasn't my mother with her hands all over him just made me see how stupid I am,” Jughead cleared his throat and squeezed his eyes shut. His mum had been gone for years now but Jughead hadn't cried. He didn't cry when he watched his mother and sister hop into a taxi from his bedroom window, he didn't when he was ten and had to drag his passed out father inside, he didn't cry on mother's day, he didn't cry when he opened the first email his mother sent him telling how happy she was and Jughead certainly wasn't going to cry sitting at the counter at Pop's. Pop sat on the stool next to his and placed a steaming plate of cheese fries next to him. “Thank you Pop,” Pop just nodded his head.  
“Come by here tomorrow morning and we'll start your training,” Pop clapped Jughead on the back and stepped off the stool. Jughead smiled and dug into the cheese fries, his appetite had come back. 

Jughead felt like a cliche. Like he was something out of an early 2000s rom com. He sighed heavily as he threw another small pebble at her window. Jughead shook his head as the pebble yet again failed to get her attention. Jughead spotted a ladder a few meters away from her window, Jughead was to have to become an even bigger cliche. Jughead dragged the ladder in front of her window as quietly as he cold and the placed a shaky hand and foot on it and began to climb to the blonde's window. His heart broke at the sight of Betty sitting crossed legged on her wiping daintily at her eyes with a tissue. Suddenly Jughead's problems seemed like nothing, again. Betty's sister was locked in a home, heavily pregnant with Jason Blossom's child, her parents were crazy and Betty was dealing with this all by herself. He couldn't lay his problems on her, she didn't need to know, it wasn't the right time. He rapt his knuckles on her window. She turned around and beamed at him. Betty's smile made Jughead's heart flutter faster in his chest. She lifted the window up for him and blinded him yet again with her smile.   
“Hey there Juliet,” he said as he pulled himself through her bedroom window. The floral wallpaper reminding him of his little sister who despised floral but still let their mum put floral wallpaper in her room. Betty's room felt like home to him. He laid down on her bed and put his arms behind his neck and closed his eyes, he was comfortable, he was home.   
“What are you doing here Juggie?” She sat beside him, her eyes still glossy with tears but her smile wide. He sat up and grabbed her by the shoulders making her giggle.   
“I. Got. A. Job,” she jumped up with her hands over her mouth. If he could tell her about the job he could tell how his father continued to get worse, he could tell her that he was forced to move out because it became unsafe, he could tell her that he his home was under the bridge, he could tell her that he hadn't slept in a bed in weeks. He knew that he could tell her all of this and she would take it upon herself to find a solution, to help him out, but he didn't want her to help him, he wanted to help her. Jughead wanted to eliminate all of her problems, not add to them. He would keep his homelessness to himself, he would sort it out himself.   
“Juggie that's great! Where at?” She was practically bouncing up in down with excitement, her blue eyes wide and filled with relief. Betty's hair was released from her ponytail and was freely flowing around her shoulders in golden waves, he liked Betty like this, comfortable and relaxed, not feeling like she had to dress up or impress anyone. Looking at her there in her tank top, pajama shorts and smiling the way she was he was reminded again why Archie was such an idiot. She chased him their whole lives and he always knocked her back, Jughead couldn't understand how he did it. Jughead was glad Archie was blind to their best friend's beauty, he didn't deserve her. No one deserved Betty Cooper, not Archie, not Jughead. Betty's eyes were no longer glassy and her smile was still present on her face, she was okay. There have been many times when Jughead wanted to kiss Betty, the first day of kindergarten when she shook his hand and said she liked his name, when they were ten and hiding behind the Andrew's shed while she patched up his knee, when they were 15 and he found her outside Archie's house crying because Archie had said he would date Cheryl Blossom in a heartbeat and right then. He had passed up the opportunity many times in fear that it just wasn't the right time, in fear that she would reject him, in fear that he would screw it all up. “Juggie come on tell me!” She was right in front of him now, her face inches away from his, he would just have to move that little bit closer and it would be happening. Jughead's heart was racing faster than it ever had before. He looked in her confusion riddled eyes and then let his eyes wander to her smiling lips. Jughead pressed his lips against hers and suddenly he wasn't thinking about anything. His mind was free when he was with her. She began to kiss him back and relief washed over him, he had done the right thing. Her hand grasped the back of his neck pulling him closer to her, his hands rested on her cheeks. They fit together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, they were meant to be. She broke away but kept her hand on his neck, he lips slight parted and swollen. “Wow,” she whispered with a breathy giggle. He smiled and pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her in a hug, her head tucked neatly under his chin.   
“I got a job at Pop's,” he said. Jughead could feel her shake with laughter. She pulled away and looked up at him smiling.   
“But you hate rush?” Betty had wandered in during rush many times and saw Jughead glaring at the many people interrupting his writing time, the only one he didn't glare at was Betty. He smiled at her.   
“I think I'll survive,”


End file.
